The Leech

After taking in a homeless man, a priest's invitation to have him stay during the holiday season descends into chaos when the homeless man and his girlfriend move in and turn his life upside down, sending him on a downward spiral that will test his faith like never before.

Overall, this one had its moments, but it does fall flat at points. The main aspect of this one is the highly enjoyable sense of characterization that takes place here where the slow corruption that takes place becomes painfully obvious. Seeing how he starts off as the righteous and straightlaced preacher that tends to use religious anecdotes to genuinely help others and be a better person which becomes tested in the greatest tradition and sets things up nicely going forward. The comedic undertones present in the means through which they start to test his limits upon first arriving with their constant indulges in vice, tempting him through alcohol or debaucherous sex, and flat-out rejecting his pious designs on their lives that gives way to a frenetic and otherworldly second half where the extravagant visuals are utilized at their best point. That still doesn't save the film from having a rather slow and almost unworthy build up until that point where the film attempts to set him on this path of corruption through generally non-horrific means. With the majority of the focus here on their uncouth behavior with wanton language, alcohol use, sexual deviance, and otherwise just generally acting in as non-Christian of a manner as they can around him that causes the priest to slip into the muck with them, the horror tone is somewhat missing for the vast majority of these scenes with the attempts offering more of a comedy atmosphere. Considering how all of this comes across with very little interaction or change in tone, the potential is there for this to be a bland time without much let-up which thankfully is the only real issue with the film.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, sexual themes, and Violence.

It's very clear that a non-religious person wrote this film and that they take a dim view of priests, and all of that would be fine if they had something intelligent to say.

Instead, an extremely far-fetched narrative takes place that is so thin only the worst demographic of horror fans could find it redemptive. David is a humble priest who struggles to keep his small town and nearly empty church afloat. Here's the thing - Catholic priests are pretty much NEVER this isolated. The Roman Catholic Church is a huge organization and some may dismiss its bureaucracy as less than spiritual, but in fact it serves a very moral purpose: to keep priests from turning into Evangelical cult leaders or tv preachers, the level of education and social system inherent to Roman Catholicism would render this entire movie utterly implausible. Really, David should have been an Evangelical or Baptist preacher, but then the pseudo-intellectual who came up with this mean-spirited film couldn't make him "bad" because he's a celibate closeted homosexual instead of a married man.

Isolated and deeply religious, all it takes are a few drinks with a deranged homeless couple to whom he naively offers shelter to turn him into a schizophrenic severe alcoholic and mass murderer.

It's so far-fetched, it's so so bad....the homeless people are also depicted so meanly, so cruelly, like a stereotype of what a conservative jerk thinks a homeless person is - rude, entitled, stupid, addicted to drugs, and utterly corrupt.

It's just a bad movie. I waited for it to get better or redeem itself and no it was just an excuse for an angry atheist to use a mediocre religious backdrop in a violent low budget flick.

This was a very entertaining ride with great performances all around! The contrasting personalities of Father David and Terry created some hilarious moments and lots of great tension ("I was just crankin one out!"). I laughed out loud a lot during this! It was a hoot seeing Father David's slow descent into madness and depravity and him trying to save the souls of these two agents of chaos. I loved how Terry and Lexi become this corrupting force in his well-ordered life and bring it all crashing down. Father David's transformation throughout the film is fantastic. His unhinged rant at the midnight mass was a great scene. I loved how the film explored and twisted the theme of "help thy neighbor" in hilarious and dark ways. Overall this was a super entertaining blast of twisted Christmas cinema!

I like Jeremy Gardner. He is the director of two good horror movies, BATTERY (2012) and AFTER MIDNIGHT (2019). I like the later even more, even though it is not a traditional horror movie, it's weird, with offbeat comedic vibes.

THE LEECH is even weirder. Acting is good. JG is a good actor, too. This movie kept my interest until the end. Slow to start but in the end, all hell breaks loose. I expected it to be funnier, i thought it was a comedy-horror. Whereas there are indeed some funny scenes, i wouldn't categorise it as comedy-horror. This is a strange indie horror movie, way darker than it seems at the start.

I can't rate it higher because it made me feel uncomfortable and not in a good way. There are many movies that make you feel uncomfortable and i, usually, enjoy this feeling, but i didn't enjoy much this one. I can't explain it further because i don't wanna give a spoil. For sure, it was a hell of a ride, and if you wanna watch a really weird horror movie that does not hold back, you will probably enjoy it. I didn't, therefore, i can't recommend it.

I recently watched The Leech (2022) on a random streaming service. The story follows a priest with a struggling congregation who encounters a man freezing in the cold and decides to take him in, choosing to practice what he preaches. The man soon brings along a girlfriend he has just met, and the couple quickly grow comfortable in the priest's home, testing how long he can hold onto his faith before losing it.

The film is written and directed by Eric Pennycoff (Central Park) and stars Jeremy Gardner (After Midnight), Graham Skipper (Suitable Flesh), and Rigo Garay (Blackout).

This is one of those movies where the writing and acting are solid, but the setup is stronger than the payoff. I'll also say the church rap completely threw me off. The couple is perfectly performed and appropriately annoying-you spend the entire movie waiting to see what's going to happen to them. The priest is an interesting character with some effective twists and turns, but I wanted much more from the film's conclusion.

In the end, The Leech has its moments but ultimately falls short. I'd rate it a 5/10.